Blog about my life and experiences after learning that I have stage IV lung cancer in April, 2007. Includes travel experiences, treatments and status info, as well as other misc comments.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

offer of help

Today, I exchanged a few emails with someone who has a co-worker who was just diagnosed with brain cancer and who started chemo and radiation today. I was able to offer suggestions re: how she could help her friend - listening, offer transportation/companionship during treatments, prepared dinners for her friend and husband, etc. Reading her emails, I became aware that my personal experiences could be applied to another situation - like the person's co-worker. This validates the fact that a medical website has asked to publish my personal blog. It certainly does provide the circumstances where others are able to use my experiences to figure out their challenges.

Today, my normal skin reaction appeared. I almost always have a skin reaction of some kind. My upper chest, left neck, chin and some forehead have developed a bit of raised rash. So far, I have used the cream from Dr Forkin and it seems to help. Tonight, I used another moisture cream to see if it helps. We'll see.

Nothing else significant today. Tomorrow, I get a chest xray and see Dr Birdas - the surgeon who did my pleurodesis. Hopefully, he will tell me that all is progressing as expected. Even though I continue to have pain in my right side, that is actually listed in my checkout papers as an expected thing for a couple months.